Sorting Objects Math Game

A simple toddler math game sorting objects.

Nothing like dumping out a bunch of seemingly random toys and a few cereal bowls to peek your toddler’s interest (seemingly random, but you know I have something up my sleeve!). My toddler, Sam, was jazzed up just at the looks of the sorting objects activity laying in front of him.

What did we make of this mess? We made a dandy little sorting objects activity.

Sorting and classifying are two amazing math skills that children can master from an early age. But I feel like 99.9% of the sorting activities I do with my son, Sam, end up being color sorting activities and I wanted to expand our sorting horizons. Start moving into some “higher level” sorting.

For starters, I wanted to remove color as a sorting option. I didn’t want Sam to be able to “fall back” on sorting these objects by color but be pushed into sorting them a different way (aren’t I the worst?). I did this by choosing all blue items and setting them out on display. I also sang the song “I’m Blue (da ba dee da ba di)” the entire time I collected the materials for this. You know, just FYI.

In addition to being blue, I also made sure that the items were not 100% the same – various types of letters, different lids, random blue cars.

Once everything was in place, I said one teaching line to Sam: “Sorting is when we put things together that are alike. What do you see here that is alike?” That’s all the direction he needed and off he went.

Sam sorted the items into groups based on what they were: legos of all sizes, letters, lids, blocks, etc. This is big for us – the first time we have non-color sorted a large group of items. Someday, we will sort by “things with wheels”, “things we use in the kitchen”, “things that move” and so on.

The end shot!
So, we will call this “Intro into Non-Color Sorting” and I’d say it went amazingly. But I’m a little biased because the student is fantastic.